Surface modification of piezoelectric aluminum nitride with functionalizable organosilane adlayers

The world of biosensors is expanding at a rapid pace with an ever-increasing demand for more sensitive miniaturized devices. Acoustic wave biosensors are not spared from this trend. In this domain, the search for enhanced sensitivity is increasingly oriented toward the rational design of new piezoelectric materials with superior properties to substitute for prevalent quartz. With respect to surface chemistry, construction of the biorecognition element, more often than not, requires the use of bifunctional molecules that can spontaneously assemble on the substrate and form organic surfaces readily biofunctionalizable in a subsequent, ideally single step. In this context, we present herein the surface modification of aluminum nitride (AlN) with alkyltrichlorosilane cross-linking molecules bearing a functionalizable benzenethiosulfonate moiety. This latter feature is next demonstrated through the straightforward, preactivation-free immobilization of thiolated biotin probes. To date, AlN has only received little attention in the field of piezoelectric biosensors despite its many attractive properties and the perspective to operate devices at ultra-high frequencies (GHz) with unprecedented sensitivity. To our knowledge, this work describes one of the first examples of direct surface derivatization of AlN with bifunctional trichlorosilane molecules. It also constitutes a first step toward the development of electrodeless GHz piezoelectric biosensing platforms based on AlN and trichlorosilane surface chemistry.